The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Qismas Crunch’.
The new Poinsettia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Sabro, Denmark. The objective of the breeding program is to create uniform and freely-branching Poinsettia plants with attractive inflorescences and good postproduction longevity.
The new Poinsettia plant is a naturally-occurring whole plant mutation of Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ‘Eckalverta’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,297. The new Poinsettia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within a population of plants of ‘Eckalverta’ in a controlled greenhouse environment in Sabro, Denmark in May, 2011.
Asexual reproduction of the new Poinsettia plant by terminal vegetative cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Sabro, Denmark since September, 2011 has shown that the unique features of this new Poinsettia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.